Built for BlackBerry program updated and improved!

As some of you may have noticed by the now, the planned maintenance for BlackBerry World that happened on August 27th brought with it some visual changes to the app with the stand-out changes being that the Built for BlackBerry apps are now more prominent. There's a bit more to it than that though, the update was part of a bigger initiative to improve the Built for BlackBerry program and with the BlackBerry World update complete, the announcement of the changes came to developers via the BlackBerry Developers blog. Check out the list of changes and improvements made:

New Developer Checklist that identifies the criteria and steps to create a Built for BlackBerry App or Game

New BlackBerry World features increasing visibility for Built for BlackBerry apps, including: List View Built for BlackBerry identifier, App Details Screen Built for BlackBerry logo badge, Top Built for BlackBerry List, and Built for BlackBerry Search filter

Learn more about the resources available to you for designing, developing, and distributing your Built for BlackBerry app or game

Additionally, if you missed out on the chance to pick up a Limited Edition red developer version of the BlackBerry Z10, you once again have the chance to snag one, provided you meet the criteria requirements. So with all that being said, if you've been working on an app that may not have qualified before, it's time to start looking at that code once again and see if you can now get in on it. If you've been on the fence about building an app as well, now would also be a perfect time to get the latest SDK downloaded and start building something awesome!

Reader comments

Built for BlackBerry program updated and improved!

When you look at how far things have come in seven or eight months, it really is rather amazing. Sure it wasn't perfect out the gate, but improvements have been steadily coming through. It's nice to see the improvements coming along. Keep it rolling guys. Keep it rolling.

You do realize that the company is shrinking not growing??!
From a shareholder's point of view, that isn't very encouraging. And I don't think most are out for a quick buck, but they just don't like seeing their investment loosing it's value with no real sign that may change.

I think its a mess communication wise. They do not talk with you, just make a decision and done. For example for me I have to add things that i did not include on purpose, but as the tester wants this I have to add it. Period.

I too have heard of this and have NO idea what they were talking about. My app got BFB in about 25 days.

I applied.
They emailed me that it's under review.
4 days later, they emailed me saying that my app isn't flat out rejected but I need to make a few changes. (I still had two MORE tries after I make changes they suggested)
I made the changes and about 15 days passed and then I emailed them about what the status is.
They emailed saying it has been approved and the changes will take place in a day.

Through out the whole thing (except the 15 days gap), they were very supportive, responsive and even explained WHAT I needed to do to get the certification.

I would support it without any hesitation. It is the human involvement and none-standard black box operation (e.g. some get response in a few days, others weeks) that hurts the ecosystem. If they do a machine scan, like Apple pre-scan, for things like: 1) Use BB service 2) Conform to BB UI 3) Using Cascades 4) Image loading efficiency 5) Network usage efficiency 6) No battery drain 7) Reasonable headless op time / frequency / chaining ... Then, it would be great. When human gets in, the integrity of the system is at risk, the case the app crashed my Q10 the first time is an example. I am sure moderate tests could easily find the problem, yet it is BfB, because the person who reviewed it said it is.

Don't call me troll because I mentioned Apple here. I don't care who it is it is just an example of evaluating app objectively without human bias and corruption.

It requires that the app must be compatible on all devices within a month or so of their release. I agree that keyboard shortcuts should be a requirement in particular, but most devs that will get BfB will be smart enough to add keyboard support anyways. But I agree.

I disagree. Built for BlackBerry means the app was properly written to work well within the BB10 OS. In other words the functionality of the programming is sound. The end users will decide by vote of download which apps are actually viable from a sales and marketing perspective. It's really two different criteria. When I am looking at an app, one thing I want to know is whether or not the code is sound. I have had experiences on other platforms where the write up on the app sounds good, but the code is crap. Nine times out of ten those apps would cause my device to do all sorts of things like freeze and crash. Remove the crap app and voilà, the device worked well again. Therefore the quality of the apps you install has an effect on the performance of your device. I will not load crap apps on my device. Bringing this back to the point, Built for BlackBerry means that the code will not mess up my device. Whether the purpose of the app is meaningful and how user friendly it is are two other different criteria. But first, let's start with an app that was coded right.

I don't think this is an appropriate place to name point individual apps. I am sure BB is aware of this. And I will let them know any way via appropriate channels.

I don't think the reviewers intentionally stamped BfB on apps that crashed. But the person easily approved it without testing it on a popular OS revision (10.1.0.1483). I am not sure, the app may freeze other os revisions too. In other cases you see much better Cascades apps that are not BfB while worse ones with similar or less functionality are BfB. I cannot explain this unless someone tells me a lot good Cascades apps don't apply for BfB because they are too good. On the other hand, I do hear complains from developers of good Cascades apps. Their good Cascades apps are BfB-rejected for no good reasons. Just search this very site for the threads of BfB complains.

Lol.. I think you are misunderstanding the purpose of BfB... it motivates devs to make NATIVE (aka user friendly) and USEFUL apps rather than single purpose junk apps because they don't get as much advertising or visibility in BlackBerry World. BlackBerry has done a phenomenal job with these new additions and it's only improving BlackBerry World and the experience for consumers.

Agree, BB should promote native app. Then just label the objective with a Native label. The problem with human review is that, in addition to the first crash I experienced on BB10, a lot good apps are not BFB while similar bad ones are. Go look yourself. Good luck.

I wonder if this is in response to getting some more quality apps in place of the 45k+ apps per one developer which the news was having another BBBD ( BB Bash Day ), saying BB picked quantity over quality..

This has been in the works for a WHILE.. They knew they were getting huge app submissions, and now they can say they have the numbers, so now it's time to be able to say they have the quality. It's all a matter of priorities, and numbers were more important than quality was for an emerging platform. Now they can say they have 260k apps in BlackBerry World, which us very respectable, so now is where quality apps are pushed and junk ones fall behind.

It's within settings on the app. And i wouldn't consider it "perfect timing" this is SO long overdue for devs, and has been in the works. It would have been "perfect timing" 3 months ago because we'd have much better apps in BlackBerry World today had it been pushed out sooner. Not everything is a big consipiricy by BlackBerry, they had to go through a lot of steps to finally get this pushed out.

I think its perfect timing, in respect to the BBBD, it shows that blackberry responds and get things done. I agree it is long overdue, I got one of my apps B4B approved several weeks back, I only wished there had been a program similar to the Z10LE when I had. However my motivations were pure as I really want to support BBRY and think that the BB10 is a great platform.

No something that wouldn't take me longer than two months that's actually beneficial not something like a basic RSS Feed reader. I have a few unfinished projects I can start back up. I'll post in the forms if they ever take off :)

Nice to see things being stepped up with the program. My game received BFB approval this week after being in the queue for what seemed like a long time. Hopefully the new sections and identifiers will help the program along.

In order for BlackBerry to claim their crown back like they used to be, they have to work extremely very hard until they see smoke coming out of their heads. Not just to work hard, they have to work very smart too. Remember, they have to face the toughest and very rich competitors IOS/Android. If the products they come out that not beat their competitors, don't bother to put out because will not sale many. Smartphone market is not very easy like it used to be any more. It is a saturate market.

I would support BfB without any hesitation if the process is fair and objective. It is the human involvement and none-standard black box operation (e.g. some get response in a few days, others weeks) that hurts the ecosystem. If they do a machine scan, like Apple pre-scan, for things like: 1) Use BB service 2) Conform to BB UI 3) Using Cascades 4) Image loading efficiency 5) Network usage efficiency 6) No battery drain 7) Reasonable headless op time / frequency / chaining ... Then, it would be great. When human gets in, the integrity of the system is at risk, the case the app crashed my Q10 the first time is an example. I am sure moderate tests could easily find the problem, yet it is BfB, because the person who reviewed it said it is.

Don't call me troll because I mentioned Apple here. I don't care who it is it is just an example of evaluating app objectively without human bias and corruption.

There are a lot other things that further defeat the original purpose of BfB. BlackBerry has done a great job in bringing in local content and popular apps. They did so even with financial support, which is great. However, those apps are not labeled as BfB (at least not all of them. Correct me if this is not accurate). Because they are too good for BB 10? BB may say, well, users download them anyway. Wrong, an app that is popular to some users may not catch attention of other users in the same region. If users only use BfB as filter, then a lot of these apps are not seen and BB's investment goes down the drain. Another label BwB, build with BlackBerry support, forget it ! BB is just making a simple thing complicated.

Let end users be the final judge of released apps;

Use machine to scan each and every app submission from developers against the very criteria of BfB.

Then, A popular app like What's app will rise up to the top by itself with the very support from its BB 10 users.

Then, bad apps like the BfB app that crashed my Q10 the first time won't event be approved.

I think part of the revamp might be the low number of BfB apps. When I do a search, I see just over 100 apps and 60 games that have been approved. So out of all the thousands of apps submitted to BlackBerry World, only 170 or so are BfB approved?

Maybe some are approved and the developers haven't updated their keywords or descriptions yet. I think it's great that the apps that have been approved have something to help stand out. It just seemed odd to me that such a low percentage of apps have made it through the approval process. Maybe the low number of approved apps is one of the reasons for the revamp.

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